This event is from the archives of The Notice Board. The event has already taken place and the information contained in this post may no longer be relevant or accurate.
This event has been CANCELLED.
The Department of History Colloquium Series presents:
Platonic Love on the Enlightenment Stage
Guest Speaker: Heather Ladd (English Department)
Day/Date: Friday, October 6th
Time: 3:00 - 5:00 p.m.
Location: B-650
Abstract: Engaging with both theatre history and the history of ideas, this talk examines shifting representations of love on the English stage. For several decades in the seventeenth century, the ideal of platonic love—idealized, non-sexual passion—was celebrated and satirized in the court theatre of England. William Davenant’s tragicomedy The Platonick Couple (1636) features the first reference in the English language to “platonic love.” The same playwright penned The
Temple of Love (1635), which mocks this rarified love, characterized on stage by elevated language, shows of resistance to physical affection, and other noble gestures of self-denial. Later in this historical and literary period, two female playwrights take up the dramatic character of the platonic lady or “she-philosopher.” Yet in Pix’s The Innocent Mistress (1697) and Centlivre’s The Platonic Lady (1707), these types are treated more sympathetically and platonic love is reframed as a potentially subversive, protofeminist stance. These writers represent adherence to this love philosophy as a direct response to unruly libertine masculinity, for, the Enlightenment stage, as Dr. Ladd demonstrates throughout this talk, was a crucible for intellectual and social experimentation, resistance, and play.
Contact:
Bev Garnett | bev.garnett@uleth.ca | (403) 380-1894
